Kennelly, Arthur Edwin

Kennelly, Arthur Edwin (kĕn`əlē), 1861–1939, American electrical engineer, b. Bombay (now Mumbai), India, educated at University College School, London. He was Edison's chief electrical assistant (1887–94) and was later professor at Harvard (1902–30) and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1913–24). Much of his research was on electromagnetism and alternating currents. In 1902 he advanced the theory, also proposed by Oliver Heaviside, that a layer of ionized air in the upper atmosphere might deflect downward electromagnetic waves. The theory was demonstrated as fact, and the deflecting layer is known as the Heaviside-Kennelly layer (see ionosphere).

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Kennelly, Arthur Edwin (1861–1939) electrical engineer; born in Bombay, India. Raised in England, he left school at age 13 and taught himself physics while working as a telegrapher. He emigrated to the U.S.A. in 1887 to become Edison's electrical assistant; he left in 1894 to be a consulting engineer, then taught at Harvard (1902–30) and occasionally at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was a pioneer in the use of mathematical models to explain electrical phenomena. He explained the path of radio waves and deduced the existence of an atmospheric ionized reflecting layer, the Kennelly-Heaviside layer.